Decorating Distractions and School Seductions...

Where are the pictures from your Europe trip?!

This is what one friend asked me, and she was right, I am slow in posting them. I am distracted. I am excited about moving into my new apartment and frustrated that the landlord hasn't called me back yet about going in to take measurements and choose paint colors. I am itching to get into our new space and set up my office. What will it be like to have a place where I can go and work, close the door and not see and hear everything that is going on in our apartment? Will Jeff and I need walkie talkies to communicate from one side of the apartment to the other? When I am working and he is in the living room, I will actually need to get up out of my chair and walk to get his attention. There will be no more simple waving of my hand to get his attention, and my voice will not carry as far as the other room...or should I say rooms.

Of course a new office means hopefully no more excuses or distractions for the writing, and I am honestly looking forward to some serious study and consistent practice. I miss my writing and I am eager to tackle new challenges this year. Of course I am also scared out of my wits, and so whenever that happens I look at school courses and what I can enroll in. What can I say? I am a good student, and I love learning, but right now the exact class that I want to take at UCLA isn't offered this term and as I am near completion of my certificate in the writers program, I am saving those few courses left for teachers I really want to continue studying with. I also know that taking a class now, would be a way of procrastinating, albeit a very time consuming and difficult way of doing so.

And so, I will have to design my own curriculum and set my own goals and meet my own deadlines. And with my very own new office...I will be happy to do so.

On the topic of schools here are some pictures of our trip into Oxford, and the university, which is the alma mater of my brother in law Stephen, who is a scientist. At this point of the trip we are in South Moore, having just left London and are visiting Jeff's sister Jenny and her kids Alex and Matthew.(not pictured.) We have enjoyed long walks in the Cotswalds, Indian curry dinners, pub lunches and lots of tea! The countryside is gorgeous and it is great to just relax and catch up with family and without the hectic pace of London.

One thing about Oxford, okay maybe a couple...the town is so beautiful and the university campuses are incredible, that gorgeous domed building is a library! The buildings are hundreds and hundreds of years old and spectacular. And there is a smell, of crushed stone and holly that if I close my eyes I can still conjure...it is intoxicating, and after a few hours of walking the grounds and smelling it, I wanted to go back to school! Well, to Oxford that is.